IIT Chicago-Kent will participate in the Thomas Tang National Moot Court Regional Competition

Jaclyn Kostich and Briana Mayes will represent IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law at the 2014 Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition regional tournament October 24 and 25 in Chicago. The winning team will join the first-place teams from four other regions at the national finals November 6 to 9 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition is sponsored by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) Law Foundation. The competition is open to all students but is especially designed to reach out to Asian Pacific American law students, to provide them with an opportunity to showcase their writing and oral advocacy skills, and to provide scholarships.

Team member Jaclyn Kostich is a third-year student who completed her undergraduate education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in English. Teammate Briana Mayes, a second-year student, earned a degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The competition is named for the late Thomas Tang, a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, Judge Tang was the first Chinese American named to the federal judiciary. During his 18 years on the Ninth Circuit, he wrote more than 400 opinions on American Indian law, labor practices, and individual rights. Judge Tang was a strong supporter of NAPABA and its activities, including the creation of its moot court competition, which was renamed after his death in 1995.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.

Teams in IIT Chicago-Kent's Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy have won numerous individual student honors and regional and national competitions. In 2008, IIT Chicago-Kent became the first law school to win both the National Trial Competition and the National Moot Court Competition in the same year. In 2009, IIT Chicago-Kent successfully defended its championship in the National Moot Court Competition.